🫁 Respiratory🟢 BasicPulmonary Oedema

Acute Pulmonary Oedema

A sudden flooding of the lungs with fluid, usually because the heart cannot cope, causing severe breathlessness.

Key points

Acute pulmonary oedema is a sudden build-up of fluid in the air spaces of the lungs, most often when the left heart fails to pump.
As pressure backs up into the lung vessels, fluid leaks into the air sacs and interferes with taking up oxygen.
It causes severe breathlessness, a feeling of drowning, a cough with frothy pink sputum, and widespread crackles in the lungs.
The person is distressed and sits upright, and the level of oxygen in the blood falls.
A chest X-ray shows the flooding, and it is separated from other causes of sudden breathlessness by the whole picture.

Memory trick

Acute pulmonary oedema is sudden lung flooding (usually left heart failure): back-pressure leaks fluid into the air sacs; severe breathlessness, a drowning feeling, frothy pink sputum, crackles, low oxygen; the person sits upright; chest X-ray shows flooding.

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🫁 Respiratory🟢 BasicPulmonary Oedema

Acute Pulmonary Oedema

A sudden flooding of the lungs with fluid, usually because the heart cannot cope, causing severe breathlessness.

Key points

Acute pulmonary oedema is a sudden build-up of fluid in the air spaces of the lungs, most often when the left heart fails to pump.
As pressure backs up into the lung vessels, fluid leaks into the air sacs and interferes with taking up oxygen.
It causes severe breathlessness, a feeling of drowning, a cough with frothy pink sputum, and widespread crackles in the lungs.
The person is distressed and sits upright, and the level of oxygen in the blood falls.
A chest X-ray shows the flooding, and it is separated from other causes of sudden breathlessness by the whole picture.

Memory trick

All of General Medicine More Respiratory